Kent SG Rock History Professional Rebuild Road Warrior Rat Rod Ready For Another Tour

This Kent SG is what Rock ‘n Roll History looks like. It was loved and abused, dragged around on gigs and tours, got tattoos, played hard, fast and loud - was loved and then abandoned. And that’s when I got it.

The body holes, stickers, scratched in tour dates and peeling veneer on the body are all from the person whom played it the most- look at the before pictures and you can see the wear and sweat inducing corrosion. The original pickups were single coils disguised inside HB covers that had a whopping 2.9k output. Needless to say I replaced them with appropriate modern output HBs that I modified to generate warmth at the neck and grit at the bridge… and kept the original crusty covers. It sounds like it always should have now.

Most likely made in Korea in the 70’s when Southland Musical Merchandise Corp. acquired the rights to the Kent name from the originators Buegeleisen & Jacobson of New York (and when the remaining Japanese manufacturers switched from original designs to copies of the standards), this guitar has the typical heavy plywood body and solid luaun (Philippine mahogany) neck. The neck is straight and true with a hefty working trussrod, the fretboard is a blond version of the luaun that was originally stained black- you can see the natural finger wear in the before pictures. (Interestingly, judging by the wear, he / she played way up the neck and not so much the cowboy chords down by the nut where fretboard wear is generally seen. Also, the original frets were soft and needed to be replaced but the wear wasn't all that bad on them, meaning who ever played it had a light touch even if they were sweaty and aggressive with it.)

I gave the neck the full treatment; a fresh 12” radius and Jescar frets, re-stained it black, added new side dots, a new bone nut and new Wilkinson tuners. Then re-finished the nice medium C carve with Danish oil to take out several gouges and divots, and replaced the bridge with a compensated aluminum wraptail. The action is low, fast and silky.

I remember 1980, I was 20, punk had grown up and was supreme, we were all poor, jobs were few and far between. We played what we had, found the gigs we could and nobody got paid back then either. This guitar was there too.

No international shipping – lower 48 USA only

Set up for .010 - .046 strings

Gig bag included

 

24-3/4” scale / 12” radius

Medium C carve

New 1-11/16” bone nut

New Jescar frets

New Wilkinson tuners

Compensated aluminum bridge

Modified HB pickups

New Alpha pots

Weight – 6 lbs 14 oz